In "The Form and Manner of Ordering Priests" there is a prayer just before the Benediction, of which this is a part: "Grant that we may have grace to hear and receive what they shall deliver out of Thy most holy Word, or agreeable to the same, as the means of our salvation." And so, again, we pray in the Litany, "That it may please Thee to give to all Thy people increase of grace to hear meekly Thy Word, and to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit." This is the way the Church teaches us to think and to pray concerning our duty and privilege in reference to the instruction and exhortation which divine love sends to us from the pulpit.
The pulpit stands, then, for something God's love does for us: "Preach the gospel." It stands also for something God's love demands from us: "Take heed how ye hear."
The Choir- and Clergy-Stalls.—It will be observed that the stalls for the clergy and choristers are generally placed on the two sides of the choir and face each other. The south side is called the "decani side" and the north the "cantoris side," as being, in cathedrals, the respective sides of the dean and the cantor (or precentor).
By this arrangement proper provision is made for the clergy as leaders of the worship of the congregation and for the choir as leaders of its praise in song. The singing in our churches is intended to be "common praise," and this arrangement of the choristers marks their office as simply to lead it. They do not sing to the congregation; they sing with or for them to Almighty God. The people should sing with them, and not listen merely, as if attending a concert. Even when, as in a Te Deum or anthem, the music is too difficult for the congregation to join in it, the singers are still rendering to God the praises of all present, and all should take part in it in thought and in heart.
Because of this ministry as leaders of praise the choir are vested. Their vestments are the cassock and the cotta—a modification of the surplice worn by the clergy.
Of the Litany-desk we have already learned in the section in reference to the nave.
The Bishop's Chair.—In many churches there is found a "Bishop's Chair." It has been felt as proper, in view of the dignity of the office of the Bishop, to provide a special seat for him, and to have it occupied by no one else. In parish churches it is placed within the sanctuary at the north or "gospel" side of the Altar, facing the people. In cathedrals it is called a "Throne," and its place is just without the rail on the decani side of the choir, facing like the choir-stalls.
Wherever placed, it is a reminder of the highest order in the Christian Ministry, and of the doctrine of Holy Orders our Church holds and acts upon. In the Preface to the Ordinal the Church makes this declaration: "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church,—Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.... No man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in this Church, or suffered to execute any of the said Functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according to the Form hereafter following, or hath had Episcopal Consecration or Ordination." What the Church here insists upon is what is commonly called the "Apostolic Succession." This rule she rigorously applies. No minister of any of the denominations, no matter how learned and pious he may be, can serve at her Altars until he has been ordained by a Bishop and is therefore commissioned by that Episcopal or Apostolic authority upon which the Church has always insisted.
The Bishop's Chair may remind us, then, of the Bishop's office and authority to ordain and to govern, of its essential importance in the life of the Church, and of how our Church's lineage and the authority of her Ministry are traced, through the succession of Bishops, directly back to the Apostles, and through them to Christ Himself, "the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls."